Celtic Heroes

I think sometimes people forget that we are humans and humans are no different fundamentally from any other animal: we are all part of nature. Many selection pressures are places on us and we normally survive because we are evolved to much better than other species. Now, if we exceed our carrying capacity, which some believe we have, the environment we are in can't physically support this many humans so there is a theory that natural checks would eventually bring our population closer to carrying capacity. Humans are so intelligent, that we often mess with nature to prevent this from happening, like exploiting lack of food by using GM and by exploiting medicinal properties from plants etc.

If you look at other species' populations, the same thing can be observed: the population grows exponentially above the carrying capacity, and then it falls because the environment just can't support it. A theory that arises from this is the Malthusian theory of population growth.

I'm not saying that I agree that this theory is true, but it is viable and this outbreak may be another 'check' which could act to bring our population down.

No one knows how far Ebola will go and how many people it will affect, but unless a treatment is found, I fear we would have a pandemic on our hands.

I think sometimes people forget that we are humans and humans are no different fundamentally from any other animal: we are all part of nature. Many selection pressures are places on us and we normally survive because we are evolved to much better than other species. Now, if we exceed our carrying capacity, which some believe we have, the environment we are in can't physically support this many humans so there is a theory that natural checks would eventually bring our population closer to carrying capacity. Humans are so intelligent, that we often mess with nature to prevent this from happening, like exploiting lack of food by using GM and by exploiting medicinal properties from plants etc.

If you look at other species' populations, the same thing can be observed: the population grows exponentially above the carrying capacity, and then it falls because the environment just can't support it. A theory that arises from this is the Malthusian theory of population growth.

I'm not saying that I agree that this theory is true, but it is viable and this outbreak may be another 'check' which could act to bring our population down.

No one knows how far Ebola will go and how many people it will affect, but unless a treatment is found, I fear we would have a pandemic on our hands.

Those are some very good points volde. As far as ebola goes I would add that even if we develop inexpensive and quickly manufactured cures/vaccines containment and precautionary measures along with education and awareness will still be very important.

No theory is 'true' in that it is exact. Even the best theories are approximations of extremely complex systems that offer useful and accurate predictions provided certain constraints are met. Typically with biological growth systems the limits are available space and resources such as food.

As you point out humans can change the environment more than any other animal so the assumptions of a fixed resource (or a fixed rate of supply) or even a fixed amount of space don't apply.

For example http://www.geo.cornell.edu/eas/energy/r ... usion.html there is nearly an unlimited amount of fusion fuel just sitting there waiting for us to develop the technology to extract it. Humans wont be limited by running out of energy for even millions of years despite growing over a thousand time more populous.

What about space? Well most of the planet is uninhabited. With technology we can build cities at the poles, in deserts, on and in mountains, on and beneath the seas. With inexpensive labor from robotics (automated systems that can manufacture structures as well as make more automated systems) guided by limited AI it becomes possible to build farms thousands of layers deep using cheap fusion power and advanced genetically modified organisms to produce food for everyone. We can take cities into the third dimension in ways we have only begun to see making it possible for billions to live in a single area - which will make transportation costs lower and increase efficiency.

What about collateral damage to the environment? This is a real problem but it can be overcome with the right attitudes, technology and efforts. Already its clear we are close to being able to prevent any more extinctions. By sampling all biological organisms, taking samples of thier tissues, and preserving their DNA and reproductive components we will be able to reintroduce every last species on earth should they all go extinct in nature. It will give us time to help engineer and fix the environment at which point we can then reintroduce the creatures into the wild. If your cities and farms are thousands of layers deep it is conceivable we could even leave much the top layer in a 'naturally' appearing state to provide these creatures with a healthy environment while at the same time support trillions of humans.

In short, with the right vision and technology, we can make the world a truly wondrous place capable of sustaining many many many more people than we have today.

Now the nurse working in the hospital and caring for Duncan (the first fatality in the US) likely has Ebola as well despite wearing protective equipment.

Given the very few people being treated outside of africa it seems as if the number of healthcare workers being infected is about 1 for every 5 patients. Not only do these people know better they have (or should have) access to some of the best protective gear.

Im not sure how many people will keep believing Ebola "isn't very contagious" with so many medical professionals stricken and dead.

Added:
http://us.cnn.com/2014/10/12/health/ebo ... ?hpt=hp_t1

The CDC is saying it likely occurred when removing the protective gear. I for one am not going to believe it isnt extremely easy to catch if this is the case. This is also what they were saying about the nurse in Spain.

Thanks to this topic, going into Off Topic section is kinda depressing.

Thanks to this topic, going into Off Topic section is kinda depressing.

it is

Person A: it's because of white people why the black death occured! They are so stupid
Person B:that's kinda racist to say that...
Person C, D, E and F: stfu, stop going off topic and bringing racism in the discussion

Cmon, we're better than this people...

You people need to stop being so weak hearted and accept the fact that you can't have billions of human beings on this planet for very long.

Population control is a good and healthy thing.

Again i feel absolutely no regret in saying with confidence you sir are horribly ignorant and immoral.

First off i take it you are offering to commit suicide to help this over population problem? Perhaps talk your family, loved ones and friends into this pact too? Or is it simply intended for someone whom you don't even know like the black box from the old Hitchcock series or its modern remake into a movie?

If you had a highschool, perhaps giving some credit here, undergraduate knowledge understanding of history you would see your fallacy. You see the brightest minds on the planet just over 150 years ago "proved" the earth couldn't support much over a billion people. The astonishing thing is they were right! Of course it was with 1850 tech with no antibiotics, no food preservation, no fast information transmission, horse manure piled 3 stories high in cities like New York, no public sanitation, no rapid transportation (besides trains), no electricity, no modern farming machines or fertilizer or gmo crops, no modern medicine, etc.

What they failed to realize is the spread of technology and how it revolutionized our understanding and living. Moreover, with many billions of people we have more well educated and intelligent people than ever before, all living at the same time, globally connected by nearly free and instant information transfer all having amazing tools at their disposal. These are the people that will cure cancer, remove the effects of aging, create sustainable free and cheap power, etc. By stupidly saying they shoud die you are shooting yourself in the foot. It's incredibly stupid.

All we need is self replicating robotic technologies, weak AI, and nuclear fusion to sustain a population in the hundreds of trillions for millions of years. There is enough deuterium in the ocean for fusion to supply a thousand times the world consumption for billions of years we don't even need to go off planet or dig down for it.

So next time you suggest we don't need this many people i suggest you volunteer.

Dude, ocean food supply has been devastated by just our current population.

Earth cannot go for very long sustaining even 1 billion humans. No matter what technology we will have, we will still devastate the environment.

"sustain a population in the hundreds of trillions"

Lol, reminds of the Chuck Norris fact sheet.

What did I just read..? Did someone on this thread seriously say that Ebola is no catastrophe? No worries?

So people do die in Africa quite often due to the unsanitary conditions, lack of medical attention, who are we to say that Ebola is irrelevant to us. Death is relevant.

This is why I don't really go to on topic section much. People post nonsense here just to up their post counts.

You people need to stop being so weak hearted and accept the fact that you can't have billions of human beings on this planet for very long.

Population control is a good and healthy thing.

Again i feel absolutely no regret in saying with confidence you sir are horribly ignorant and immoral.

First off i take it you are offering to commit suicide to help this over population problem? Perhaps talk your family, loved ones and friends into this pact too? Or is it simply intended for someone whom you don't even know like the black box from the old Hitchcock series or its modern remake into a movie?

If you had a highschool, perhaps giving some credit here, undergraduate knowledge understanding of history you would see your fallacy. You see the brightest minds on the planet just over 150 years ago "proved" the earth couldn't support much over a billion people. The astonishing thing is they were right! Of course it was with 1850 tech with no antibiotics, no food preservation, no fast information transmission, horse manure piled 3 stories high in cities like New York, no public sanitation, no rapid transportation (besides trains), no electricity, no modern farming machines or fertilizer or gmo crops, no modern medicine, etc.

What they failed to realize is the spread of technology and how it revolutionized our understanding and living. Moreover, with many billions of people we have more well educated and intelligent people than ever before, all living at the same time, globally connected by nearly free and instant information transfer all having amazing tools at their disposal. These are the people that will cure cancer, remove the effects of aging, create sustainable free and cheap power, etc. By stupidly saying they shoud die you are shooting yourself in the foot. It's incredibly stupid.

All we need is self replicating robotic technologies, weak AI, and nuclear fusion to sustain a population in the hundreds of trillions for millions of years. There is enough deuterium in the ocean for fusion to supply a thousand times the world consumption for billions of years we don't even need to go off planet or dig down for it.

So next time you suggest we don't need this many people i suggest you volunteer.

Dude, ocean food supply has been devastated by just our current population.

Earth cannot go for very long sustaining even 1 billion humans. No matter what technology we will have, we will still devastate the environment.

"sustain a population in the hundreds of trillions"

Lol, reminds of the Chuck Norris fact sheet.

News flash genius we are at 7 billion people and have had over one billion for over 170 years.

I never said the enviornment wouldn't suffer in the short term, I said we are close to stopping any further extinctions through cloning techniques and that's factually correct. It will be quite a bit of work but within 100-200 years we should be able to index every last organism and have a genetic sample large enough to avoid any problems.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/14 ... 64003.html

For example we are close to cloning mammoths by using syntheticly synthesized mammoth DNA and using elephant eggs with the DNA replaced with a mammoth and an elephant surrogate. Mammoths have been extinct thousands of years. With better technology it will be possible to completely rebuild the worlds ecosystems even after the unlikely event they completely die out.

As you may be aware we throw away grain and other food that is surplus - the only starving in the world is due to politics we have an overabundance of food. All we need for food is energy (light) and co2 which can be produced with fusion power.

Try actually refuting the content rather than changing the subject.

If ebola becomes airborne most of us are fked :c